
E 





SPEECH 



OF 



HON. B. F. HALLETT, 






THURSDAY EYENIIVG, OCT. 14, 1858. 



PHONOGRAPHIC REPORT BY J. M. W. YERRINTON. 



boston: 

printed at the ofpice of the boston post. 

1858. 



u 



.\\\t ' 



SPEECH 



Mr President and FeUoio Citizens — It is certainly 
witli very great pieasure that I make this evening, 
and this place, the first occasion of opening my mouth 
in the present state and congressional canvass. I feel 
exceedingly gratified at the introduction to you, which 
ray kind friend (Hon. Charles Thompson) has given 
me. I cannot but remember how long he and I have 
labored together in defeat and in triumph in the cause 
of nationality, nor can I ever forget the veterans of 
the old Charlestown corps of democrats, many of 
whom I see around me here, with whom I have stood, 
shoulder to shoulder, and fought the battles of de- 
mocracy in this commonwealth. (Applause.) And 
in all that time, though we have been rarely victorious, 
here in this little commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
now. under the small rule of its bigoted and narrow 
minded political managers, dwindling almost to a 
speck on this great map; (cheers,) although we are 
almost always beaten here, yet in the grand army, on 
the broad surface of this great Union of triumphant 
democratic states, we have been ranked and honored 
in the columns of the victorious. Other states have 
been true to the Union in the extension of territory 
and of democratic principles, while here in Massa- 
chusetts the partj' holding the state power has gone 
on, from generation to generation, as it is now going 
on, in this dog-mill trot, trot, trot, of everlasting and 
useless opposition to democratic administrations! 
(Laughter and applause.) 

I am pleased, too, that I have the honor of speaking 
here in the banner city of the commonwealth, (cheers) 
— the only city in the commonwealth which has, so 
far, set some leaven into the abolition dough of the 
Massachusetts legislature, by giving to it four sound 
representatives, and one national, upright senator. 
(Loud applause.) That is an honor worthy of Bunker 
Hill boys ! Do not forget it on the second day of 
November. 

I am gratified, also, in having been preceded in ad- 
dressing j'ou by my young friend (Sidney "Webster, 
Esq.,) of whom I will onjy say here — and I hope his 
modesty will pardon me for saj'ing it — that though I 
expected a good speech from him, I have been very 
much disappointed, for he has made a much better 
one even than I expected. (Loud cheers.) And, 
when he told you, and when he exhibited the 
pleasant, manly and agreeable demonstration of the 
fact, that he is a young man, although he rose with 
that declaration, he left the impression on your minds, 
which you will not easily forget, that, though young 
in years, he is ripe in eloquence and old in wisdom. 
(Loud cheers.) When I see such young men coming 
forward to fill the places we shall have to leave, by 
and by, to more active hands — though I can tell j^ou, 
there is a good deal of work left here yet — (the 
speaker here struck his breast vigorously, amid the 



laughter and hearty applause of the audience) — work 
enough for as many campaigns as the black repub- 
licans can live through ! Yet, v/hen I see the young 
men coming forward with national principles, it gives 
me strength and hope and renewed courage that 
Massachusetts will one day be restored to the Union. 
(Loud cheers.) 

Now, gentlemen, speaking of parties, I have been 
very anxious, as I always am when I go into these 
contests, to find out what sort of a party we are con- 
tending with and what are their principles and pur- 
poses. I have seen a great many parties and odds 
and ends of parties opposed to the democracy, whose 
platforms turned out very much like the Frenchman's 
flea ; when j^ou put yoixr finger on him he wasn't 
there! (Laughter.) But I have never found such a 
party as that with which we are now contending. 
Touching its changes of name and its changes of 
principles or no principles, it has all the elasticity of 
the eel, and all the facility of the flea in escaping 
from any fixed poipt to which you attempt to hold it. 
(Laughter.) And in regard to the qualities of the 
eel, you may add another characteristic if you please, 
that of wriggling very much. (Renewed merriment.) 
Now, I cannot tell what the republican party, as they 
call themselves — (and I never like to call people out 
of their names, though I never could tell what they 
took that name for) — I eannot tell, 1 confess, what 
their object is, what their principles are, or what they 
mean to do if they should get the power ; and what 
is more, I don't believe they know themselves. My 
young friend who preceded me, I think has given a 
verj' acute philosophical analj'sis on this point, and I 
want you to consider it, namelj', that it is a party of 
negations, without a single aflirmative principle. I 
think that a verj' comprehensive and striking defini- 
tion of that party. I am reminded in that connection, 
and particularly in reference to their present name, 
of a very forcible remark made by Thomas Jefierson 
in relation to the old federal party, after they had 
passed through a great variety of changes of names. 
He said — "The Hartford convention, the victory of 
Orleans, the peace of Ghent, prostrated the name of 
federalism. Its votaries abandoned it through shame 
and mortification, and now call themselves republi- 
cans. But the name alone is changed ; the princi- 
ples are the same." It strikes me that remark, made 
a great many years ago in regard to the federal party, 
by the great statesman, is peculiarly applicable to 
this party, that now calls itself the republican party, 
with this exception, that they have no principles, 
only notions to change. "Republican" is the once 
time honored name that was originally given to the 
democratic party ; but in the progress of time, and 
more particularly on accoiiht of the attempted use of 
it as an aspersion, on the part of the federal party, 



& 



who applied the word "democracy" as something 
that tbey considered dangerous to good government; 
the name "democratic" was attached to the old repub- 
lican state rights party, and we have always since been 
called democrats. You will find that name carried 
back to the earliest history of the establishment and 
progress of the great party that for fiftj'-eight j^ears, 
T.-'th brief exceptions, has guided and governed the 
country. The democratic party never spoiled its 
name and never changed it, but the federal party first 
changed to federal republicans and finally assumed 
the name of "republican party." Then they became 
"national republicans," and then they became some- 
thing else, and by and by they became nothing. 
(Laughter.) That is exactly, I thinli, the road in 
which the present "republican" party is going. What 
are they, what materials are they made up of, and 
where did thej' come from ? In the first place they 
were the "abolition party," "pure and simple," as the 
French, say; but more simple, perhaps, than they 
were pure. (Loud laughter and cheei's.) Then they 
became, after they had made that name too impopu- 
lar to retain it longer, the "liberty party." Don't 
you remember the "liberty party?" What a 
flourish they made about "liberty!" They were 
going to crush all old parties and take charge of the 
universe ! But after looking at it awhile the people 
found that it only meant negro liberty, and they did 
not think much of that, and so that alias failed 
to upset the Union. Then they got an idea 
about negro freedom of the territories; and some- 
body happening to use the words "free soil," they 
all cried out — " We are free soilers." Why didn't 
they stick to that? They kept it two or three 
years, but the}'' were found out under the new name 
and it got so unpopular they had to abandon it. Then 
the}' called themselves "the republican party" — no, 
before that, they were the "fusion party" ; but fusion 
led them into'cowiusion (laughter), they could not 
elect Mr Rockwell, nor Mr Fremont, and then they 
became the republican party and contended for the 
sovereign power of congress over territories. Well, 
that seemed to go pretty well while Kansas lasted, 
but there were two or three hitches to it. They 
wanted to get up a great anti-slavery party and con- 
quer the south. But there was the American anti- 
slavery party, that wanted to prevent white men be- 
coming citizens, and the republican anti-slavery party 
that wanted black men to rule the country, and in 
hopes that they might contrive, in some way, to get to- 
gether, they have changed their name again, and at 
last they have got to be the '^American-rejivblican 
party." This is the latest account we have of them, 
except that in Pennsylvania where they claim a sort 
of victory that wont last, they have come out under 
a new pihase and call themselves "the people's party." 
Now, that means, if it means anything, a gathering 
together in a temporary combination of all the odds 
and ends of disaffected parties, Americans, protection- 
ists, democrats, and everybody else in Pennsylvania 
that Mr Buchanan could not give an office to. And 
that is the reason that, at present, you find Pennsyl- 
vania under a pretty considerable black cloud. When 
you see a big cloud in the west, you know that the 
sun is behind it, and will rise the next morning clear 
of that cloud, and if you have watched the signs of 
the political atmosphere, you have learned that, so for 
as Pennsylvania and the west are concerned, if you 
do not have a big cloud a little before hand, you will 
not find the sunshfhe on the day of the Presidential 
election. The federal, the national-republican, the 
whig, the know nothitjg, or the anything or ever}'- 
thiuft party, has of late years always triumphed in 
Pennsylvania just two years before the Presidential 
election. When that comes, then 'hey all "flat out." 
(Laughter.) That is the way with" Pennsylvania ; 
and now, the rtsult of this present congressional elec- 
tion though by no means agreeable just at present, is, 
to my mind, a perfectly clear demonstration that in 



1860, Pennsylvania, and the democratic west of 1856, 
will be all right. (Loud cheers.) And if you find 
that a majority of opposition members of congress have 
been elected in Pennsylvania, it is simply another 
demonstration of a political fact that no t'resident 
has been able in close party times to keep his own 
state with him two years after he has been made 
President. My friend here (Sydney Webster, Esq.,) 
who was himself the confidential friend and private 
secretary of the only democratic President New Eng- 
land ever had, veiy well knows that that dis- 
tinguished man, who, the longer he lives from the 
time he occupied the chair of state, the higher will he 
be elevated in popular estimation — Franklin Pierce — 
(enthusiastic cheering which obliged the speaker to 
pause) — Yes, fellow democrats, give him your ap- 
plause, he deserves it ! — from your hands and your 
hearts — yet let me me say that man, coming from the 
most democratic state in the Union, could not pre- 
serve that state to himself, but it went to the oppo- 
sition. Van Buren lost NewY''ork; Polk could not 
retain Tennessee; and Jackson,. Andrew Jackson, 
could not carry his own state, and so it has been with 
the modern Presidents — their own state has almost 
always turned upon them. And for what reason ? It 
is owing to the extremely dilficult and delicate use 
o| the Presidential patronage. The President has a 
gireat many particular friends in his own state, and 
o^lt of the one hundred who want office, he can select 
only one; the result is just what Mr Jefferson 
said it was, many years ago; he makes one 
ungrateful fi'iend, and ninety-nine personal enemies. 
The man who gets the office, thinks it is not so high 
as he deserves, and each of the others thinks he had 
a better title to it, and the disappointed are too apt 
to turn round and oppose the administration. Now 
when you see a man do that, 3'ou may be sure 
his heart is wrong; he cannot have a good sound 
piece of hickory in him ; because, if he supported his 
principles on account of his love for those principles, 
then the office has nothing to do with it. If a desire 
to obtain office was his object, then he was not worthy 
of even holding an office at all ; and if the President 
turns anybody out of office who exhibits his dissatis- 
faction and makes a parade of his personal grievances 
by opposing the administration of his choice, then you 
may be sure the President is right, for he ought to 
turn such men out of office. 

No, gentlemen, let us look at the great principles, 
the substantial platform upon which our party stands 
and is sustained by the people; let us see whether the 
President maintains the honor of the country abroad 
and the true interests of the whole Union at home ; 
and when you fairly examine the course of President 
Buchanan and his administration, I challenge any man 
to point out anything wherein he has failed in main- 
taining the honor of our flag abroad, and justice, 
peace, constitutional right and the true interests of 
the country at home. (Loud cheers) 

To come to another point. I was speaking of my 
degire to see what were to be the principles of this 
American-republican party. I thought I should find 
them announced here last night. A gentleman who 
is distinguished by station, if for nothing else, a sen- 
ator in congress from this commonwealth, came here 
last evening, the foremost in this canvass, and put 
himself upon the first speech that had been made, 
emanating from any high authority, to announce, as I 
supposed, the prmciples and policy of the Arfierican- 
republican party. I speak of Senator Wilson. I have 
read that speech, as reported in the Boston Journal, 
and correctly reported, I presume, because I usually 
find that these very able and always industrious gen- 
tlemen, the reporters — about whose most arduous and 
difficult labors I know something, for I worked at it 
some fourteen years in my early life, and can appre- 
ciate it, — I usually find, that they report the addresses 
of public lecturers and political speakers correctly. — 
I and if I can rely upon that speech, as reported, there 



is the developraont of what we are to take as the 
great leading principles and doctrines of the republi- 
can party in the approaching canvass, beginning 
with this state election, and going on to the election 
of 1860. Well what are the principles of Mr Wilson's 
speech ? Why, I find that it is entirely made up of 
abuse of the manners and appearance and views of a 
few prominent and active men in the democratic 
ranks; and so little did that gentleman know what 
had been done in this public canvass, that he must 
needs go out of his way and bring in my humble 
name, and undertake to assail me, as if I had done the 
very things which he ascribed to other gentlemen, 
with whom I am certainly proud . to be associated, al- 
though in point of fact, I had not opened my mouth 
at all. r suppose, however, that Geu. Wilson was ap- 
prehensive that I should be after him, sooner or later, 
"with a sharp stick," and he thought he would defend 
himself by making his attack in advance. (Loud 
laughter and applause). 

And what did he begin with, so far as I am con- 
cerned? I will not spend much time on what he says 
with regard to myself, but it is surprising to me, 
that with all the invention of that gentleman, — 
and I think he has some inventive genius, 
particularly in political romance, — I was surprised 
that he could do no better than, at the end of two or 
three years, to revamp, or refox, as they call it, (laugh- 
ter) an old lie. He brought up here an old falsehood, 
that he had ftistened upon in the senate of 1854, and 
which had then been so completely nailed to the coun- 
ter that I had not heard a struggle from it from that 
time to this, until last night. What was it? He as- 
sumed to charge upon Mr Beach— a gentleman stand- 
ing so high in the estimation of the people of this com- 
monwealth that I tell Sir Wilson he is above the reach 
of his tongue (loud cheers) — because that gentleman 
presided at a democratic convention in 1849, in which 
certain resolutions were passed; and upon m3'self, as 
the person who wrote some of those resolutions, and 
presented them all, the avowal of anti-slavery doc- 
trines for political action ; and in order to make that 
charge out, he introduced one single resolution which 
was passed at that convention in the form of an ab- 
stract sentiment, and left out all the rest which repu- 
diated all political action touching slavery in state or 
territory. This seems to be his main political capital, 
for he did the same thing in the senate of the United 
States in 1854, and on tiiat occasion I published a lit- 
tle exposition for Mr Wilson's benetit, which was 
headed — " The Question of Veracity evaded by Mr 
Wilson, and again settled against him." The result 
of that exposition was this: The resolution which he 
introduced and read, alone, was as follows: — 

" Resolved, That we are opposed to slavery in every 
form and color, and in favor of freedom and free soil 
wherever man lives throughout God's heritage." 

That is a democratic sentiment; that is the senti- 
ment I held to then, that I hold to now, here and 
everywhere. (Cheers.) Where is there a democrat 
who is not in favor of freedom all over God's heri- 
tage ? It is a declaration of a general principle, the 
same as the declaration of Independence. But it is 
not laid down in those resolutions garbled by the sen- 
ator, as a rule of political action for the democratic 
party; but it is cxpresslj' there repudiated and dis- 
ftvqwed as a national part}- issue. Now mark the 
disiDgonous use the senator makes of that sentiment. 
Oh, he says, you are opposed to slavery everywhere, 
therefore you arc opposed to slaveiy in the cotton 
fields of Alabama and the sugar houses of Louisiana? 
But hoic opposed to it ? Is it not the same when ap- 
plied to slavery ill Russia, in Algiers, in Spain, and to 
oppression, if it be such, in every form, in the factories 
of Lowell, in the mills and mines of England, and 
wherever it exists? That is the general principle. 
Now, what am I to do with it. How am I to carry it 
into polit'cal action? AYhile this sentiment, as ap- 



plied to men in the states where slavery does not ex- 
ist, is universal as to color, it is only universal in the 
slaveholding states as to white men; and with that 
plain and obvious distinction between the two great 
portions of this confederacy, bound together by the 
compacts of the constitution, what do those resolu- 
tions of the convention of 1849, as touching this north- 
ern sentiment of opposition to slavery or its extension 
to free territory, declare to be the political and con- 
stitutional duty of the people of the north ? Just 
what Mr Wilson omitted to quote as the conclusion ot 
the whole and there it stands in full print befoi-e him, 
in these words : — " jBut — (mark the bid which con- 
nects the whole series of propositions of northern sen- 
timent together and draws the practical conclusion of 
the political creed of the. democratic party) 

"i(/<, liesolved. That these sentiments are so uni- 
versal ill the north as to belong to nojjarty, being held in 
common by nearly all men north of a sectional line, 
while they are repudiated by most men south of that line, 

AND THEREFORE THEY CANNOT BE MADE A NATION- 
AL PARTY TEST." 

That is the democratic doctrine of " non interven- 
tion icith slavery in state or territory''' — the doctrine of 
the democratic party in 1849— the doctrine I had the 
honor to engraft upon the Cincinnati platform — and 
that is the doctrine of the democratic party of Mas- 
sachusetts now. We of the north are opposed to 
slavery. That is our independent opinion. But we 
stop tiiere. We do not carry it into a crusade upon 
our neighbors in violation of the constitution. We 
denounce party action as sectional, and not national. 
Thus I may be opposed to one form of religion and 
you to another. Do we take each other by the throat? 
No; j'ou hold your opinions and I mine, under the 
guaranty of the constitution that congress shall not 
'interfere. Just so is it with the guaranty of slavery 
to the south in the constitution. But Mr Wilson and 
his political associates insist upon violating the con- 
stitution. Thev say they are opposed to slavery, and 
therefore they mean to carry out the principle in na- 
tional politics " until the sun shall no longer rise 
upon a master nor set upon a slave in the United 
States?" That is their dogma; and by that they 
can only mean civil war, by that they can only mean 
disunion. They mean to assume a power over the 
south respecting the property in labor guaranteed by 
the Constitution, which they have no right to assume. 
Did you ever hear them say anything for freedom in 
India? Did vou ever hear them say anything 
against slaveiy in Russia ? Do they go there to colo- 
nize and help the emperor in the work of emancipat- 
ing the serfs? Do they clamor about slavery in 
Cuba? Do they attempt to interfere with it there? 
Do they concern themselves about the Coolie trade? 
Not at all. 

Now, as regards this matter of interference with 
slavery', we might say we had a right, as individuals 
and societies, to interfere with it in Cuba, that we 
had a right to interfere with the coolie trade, and 
wherever slavery existed outsida of the United 
States; but we are pledged, body and soul, ))y our 
oaths under the Constitution, that we will not inter- 
fere with it in the United States, out of our own 
state. (Applause.) We cannot do it and be honest 
citizens of the Union. And therefore, while a New 
England democrat says, "I am opposed to slavery 
throughout God's heritage," what further does he 
say? "I am bound, by the Constitution of the Uni- . 
ted States, and the decision of the supreme court of 
the Union, to leave it to the communities in which ii 
exists, to leave it to the judicial tribunals of the 
country— and there I leave it." But our opponents 
saj-, ''We are opposed to slavciy, and we are going to 
make war upon these men and drive them out of the 
territories, and out of the Union, unless they abolish 
it." That is the difference between us, fundf.mental, 
constitutional. These men cannot see it, or will not 



fil 



see it. I do not apprehend that Mr Wilson is logician 
or statesman enough to comprehend the distinction 
between a sentiment in opinion, and a rule of consti- 
tutional political action, and therefore I forgive him 
for making the mistake. (Laughter and cheers.) 
The singular unfairness with which Senator Wilson 

V persists in misquoting these old resolutions does not 
stop here, tor he assumes further that the democratic 
party of Massachusetts have abandoned the princi- 
ples they affirmed in 1849. It is not so, and to dis- 
prove it, it is enough to say that those resolutions de- 
nounced "«M the sectional issues (if the (iay" as dan- 
gerous to the Union, and directly affirmed that thev 
could not be made the test of a national party. How 
then can the senator pretend that we have abandoned 
au}' fundamental principle, or that his party now can 
agree with our party then'? Will he go with us in 
denouncing "all the sectional issues of the day," and 
in repudiating northern sentiment concerning the in- 
stitution of slavery as a national party test? It not, 
then the democracy of Massachusetts has not changed 
in principle. But Mr Wilson and his party have 
most decidedly changed on this same issue. His and 
their doctrine used to be "that congress has absolute 
power over slavery in the territories." But the re- 
publican party now set up absolute sovereignty in 
th& legislature of a territory over slaverj', and de- 
nounce the decision of the supreme court to the con- 
trary. 

In his speech, last night. Gen. Wilson made another 
declaration of a very extraordinary character. He 
said that you, gentlemen, that the men who were 
present at Fane uil Hall tlie other night, and there 
cheered and approved the eloquent words and the 
fraternal sentiments of Jefferson Davis, (loud cheers,) 
were men who, if bidden by their southern masters, ■ 
would plant slavery on the \ery height of Bunker 
Hill! Gentlemen, a senator of the United States, 
from the state of Massachusetts, honored by the suf- 
frages of the sovereigntyof this commonwealth, who 
has seen j'ou, who knows you, who was once a 
working man, but getting too proud fur that, jumped 
up and became a senator, a inan who now appeals to 
the workingmen for support, — this man says of the 
forty thousand, or fifty thousand, I trust they may be, 
in this fall election, who will vote the democratic 
ticket and support Mr Beach and constitutional prin- 
ciples, — he says that these men are so base and grov- 
elling that at the bidding of their masters, the 

, slaveholders of the south, they would establish 

' slavery on Bunker Ilill ! Was ever a more atrocious 
libel uttered by any man against his fellow men? 

t And docs he not know that it is utterly base and 
baselj' false ? I regret to have to comment in this 
manner upon such a graceless declaration. I hope 
the senator made it in the heat of discussion, and 
will have the honesty and candor to recant it. If he 
does not, IJeave it to the people of Massachusetls, to 
the democrats of Massachusetts, to say what degree 
of contempt and indignation they will visit upon the 
man, who, affecting to represent the whole of Massa- 
chusetts in the senate of the United States, asserts 
that the intelligent men who go to Faneuil Hall, and 
listen to the eloquence of a distinguished senator 
from the south, are so servile in character that they 

■ would, at the bidding of the slaveholders, establish 
slavery here. 

Here again, gentlemen, you perceive that this man, 
though a senator, cannot understand or comprehend 
anj'thing that has large statesmanship in it. The 
national men of Massachusetts go to Faneuil Hall 
and ibev say to Senator Davis, as a southern man, 
" You have the same right to regulate your family 
flffaivs in Mississippi that we have to regulate our 
family affairs in Massachusetts, and if you choose to 
hold slaves it is none of our concern; if we choose to 
have them, we should have them, but we do .not want 
them; our fathers tried it but could not make them 
profitable." 



Why, if slave labor could have been turned to profit 
in Massachusetts you may be sure we should have 
had it here to-day, and we should have had these re- 
publicans buying them and selling them and working 
them for gain harder than the south has ever done. 
(Laughter and cheers.) The state of Massachusetts 
has no special claim to morality or purit}' on this sub- 
ject of holding slaves. She kept her slaves as long 
as they were good for anything, and then sold them 
to the south, and so far from being desirous of man- 
umitting her slaves, so far from crying out for this "ne- 
gro freedom" now claimed as her supreme sentiment, 
an act stands upon j'our ancient charters — the act of 
1703— by which it was enacted that no man should 
be allowed to manumit a slave on any pretence what- 
ever, unless he gave securit}'- for his support, in not 
less than fifty pounds, to the town in which he lived ; 
and if he did not give such security, to the satisfac-- 
tion.of the selectmen and treasurer of the town, no 
deed of manumission was to be regarded as valid, but 
the slave was to be taken and sold for his expenses. 
That was Massachusetts law ! And not only that, 
but down to 1836, a law stood upon the statute book, 
which had been there during all the years of this 
commonwealth, in which it had been declared that if 
an^' negro or mulatto should come into the common- 
wealth of Massachusetts, and should remain there 
sixty da3's, he or slie should be whipped twelve lashes 
on the bare back; if he or she should remain twenty- 
four hours after, he or she shoultl be whipped twelve 
lashes more on the bare back ; and so on every day 
ias the statute says, toties quoties, until he or she went 
out of the state. (Laughter). That act stood on the 
statute book until 1836, and these wonderfully en- 
lightened gentlemen who are now so full of negro phi- 
lanthropy that they cry whenever they see poor Cuf- 
fee anywhere, though they rarely help him anj'-, 
never attempted to repeal this law, but it . slipped out 
of the statutes when they were revised in 1836. The 
men who had that work in charge — by no means abo- 
litionists — thinking it hardly in keeping with the 
spirit of the age, quietly "let it slide." They did 
witli it just what Mr Wilson's candidate for governor 
proposes to do with the Constitution and the Union 
some day. (Laughter). 

But I must tell j'ou another fact. There was poor 
Mary Watkins. She was taken up for slanderous re- 
ports against her dame, a Mrs Swift, over there in 
Boston, and on her trial confessed it was false; nev- 
ertheless, the judges sent her to prison, in order to 
compel her to appear before the court at a certain 
time and pay the costs. Thej' kept her there for a 
length of time, and, of course, the poor servant could 
not pa3' the costs anj' way at all; and so as history 
saj's, they sold her to Virginia as a slave, and took 
the money to pay the costs ! She was a black wo- 
man. That was "Massachusetts seniim?nt" then. 
That stands upon our record ; and when they bring up 
thJMmatter of •' Uncle Tom's Cabin," and undertal* 
toSfee the south, I think Massachusetts, instead of 
reviRng her neighbors, should lay her face in the 
dust, and from the dust cry, " Unclean '" At least, 
she should be forbearing, instead of setting up this 
self-righteousness to insult the south, and, like the 
Ph'arisee, thank God that we are not like these pub- 
licans and sinners, these slaveholders!— who are oirf 
fellow citizens, to whom our fathers sold that Cegro 
woman, put the money in the treasury, and let it de- 
scend to us, their posterity, who are now using it. 

Why, this very state of Massachusetts, in the adop- 
tion of the federal censtitution, assented to the contin- 
uance of the foreign slave trade for twenty years, and 
went into it with her capital, .and her merchants accu- 
mulated immense profits from it, and now the men 
who rule her turn round with this holy sanctimony, 
and -undertake to sav to the south, "Oh, what a sin 
you commit in holding the slaves our fathers sold 
y-ou !" I cannot respect such morality. I cannot be- 



lieve in the first nlace, that it belongs to me to stand \ receive the punishment of Annamas m the next world, 
between the slaveholder and his Master in heaven, if not in this. I wonder what he thmks will become 
and say whether he is committing a sin or not, in the of him now? (Laughter and cheers.) 
relation of master and slave, which God has permitted Gentlemen, I am not here to defend Sir Beach, I 
to be made a part of his heritage. " To his own assure you< 



ISIaster he standeth or falleth." In the second place, ggjf^ 




can see no morality in breaking my oath. 

Well, what conclusion do we come to as the demo- 
cratic party ? We, a pro-slavery party ? We, the 
friends of the slave power? No, gentlemen, we are 
the friends of the Constitution, the friends sf the 
Union. We honestly made this compact, white men 
with white men, our fiithers for us, and we bound our- 
selves to hold this Union together. Every state in 
the Union then had held slaves, Massachusetts not ex- 
cepted, though we are apt to except her, and we said 
that if any state wanted to hold slaves, they should 
have them, and have the right to impott them for 
twenty years, and that if their property ran away 
Irom them, it should be restored. There is our com- 
pact ; there is our seal to the bond. Will you stand 
by it, or will you break up the Union ! Now, I say 
that Gen. Wilson, and these other men who ixnder- 
take to assume that under that Constitution, they 
can interfere with slavery in the south, or with 
the equal rights of the south in the territories, 
are dishonest in this matter; for the only true honesty 
for them is to go against the Constitution ; and hence 
it is that such men as Garrison, Phillips and Parker 
and that class of agitators who denounce the Union, 
the Constitution and the supreme court, are the only 
honest men in this anti slavery crusade. They tell 
you they are opposed to the Constitution, Ijecause the 
Constitution guarantees slavery, and, therefore, they 
denounce and repudiate it, and proclaim themselves 
traitors; although they take good care not to commit 
any overt treasonable act, because they would not 
like to dance between heaven and earth, with nothing 
to put their feet on. (Laughter.) These men are 
honest in their error. But when these republicans, 
these " freedom" politicians, go before the people of 
the commouwealth, and say, as Senator Wilson said 
last night, " We are the triends of the Union : we 
only desire to preserve the Union; we never uttered 
any unkind word against the south; where you can 
find an unkind word uttered by a northern man 
against the south, you can find an hundred uttered 
by southern men against the north; oh, we love the 
south, and we are willing to give them all their con- 
stitutional rights as we understand it!" — what are 
we to think of their sincerity? Did you ever 
read, in the Holy Scriptures, of one Joab, who ap- 
proached his brother Abner, and smilingly said, " art 
thou in health, mv brother" — and stabbed him under 
the fifth rib? (Great applause.) That is the sincer- 
ity of Mr Senator Wilson and his associates, in their 
love for the south! (Renewed applause.) jij| 

Again the senator arraigns Mr Beach for s^^ng 
that ever a republican uttered a sentiment of disloy- 
alty to the Union. Now, I might read a volume of 
declarations of the men now calling themselves re- 
publicans or acting with them, in which they have 
■^-denounced the Union in every form and fashion; yet 
ifiat senator stood here and charged Mr Beach with 
an untfuth when lie knew that the very man he eulo- 
gized, Honorable Nathaniel P. Banks, — to be spoken 
of respectfully, gentlemen, because he holds the oHice 
of governor of this commonwealth, — had declared 
that, in a certain state of circumstances, that is, un- 
less he could carry out his dogmas of anti-slavery, he 
was willing to "let the Union slide." Yet Mr Wil- 
son says that no republican ever uttered a sentiment 
agamst the Union ! Now, Mr Wilson declared in 
that speech that if he should represent Mr Beach as 
a superior man m the state senate he should expect to 



Mr Beach is a man who can defend him- 
ile is a gentleman of great caution, who knows 
' ' who has achieved 

Mr Banks has 
living by his indus- 
try in his profession. Mr Banks has been verj' much 
extolled as a mechanic, but he never made so much 
as a tooth pick in that profession that I ever heard 
of. If anybody has got one, let him show it. (Laugh- 
ter.) I believe there is a standing offer of fifty dollars 
for any piece of mechanism he ever made as a work- 
ing man. Yet he once said, in Faneuil Hall, that he 
had helped build Boston ! And however eloquent 
and able he may have been as a lawyer, I do not be- 
lieve he ever got a brief. It is only in politics that 
he has had any success, and there he has been a most 
fortunate man, for he has received honors and office 
ii'om all the various parties to which he has belonged. 
He has a certain kind of ability, which I shall not 
underrate or denj"-. But, sir, in all the qualities that 
entitle a man to respect and confidence — that make a 
man a man, I say Mr Beach is far superior to Mr 
Banks. (Applause.) I stand not here to disparage 
Mr Banks. I give him credit for all his abilit}'. I 
think him capable of presiding over a convention and 
over the house of congress, and ot being governor of 
the commonwealth, in everj-thing except his want of 
political principle. (Laughter and'applause.) There- 
fore it is not fit that any friend of the Union should 
give him his vote as a public agent, any more than I 
or j^ou, or any man in the commonwealth, woidd 
make a man an overseer on his farm, or in his mill or 
his workshop, however cunning, ingenious and shrewd 
he might be, if he wanted integrit}'. You would say, 
" He is smart, but we can't trust him." It is so with 
these mere politicians ; they are smart men, but the 
people cannot trust them. 

There was another allegation of Senator Wilson, in 
which he aspersed Mr Beach, that I will refer to, be- 
cause it is a somewhat remarkable one. Mr Beach 
has said, and somewhat strongly, that the leaders of 
the republican parfj- — Mr Wilson, Mr Banks, and 
other prominent agitators in this anti-slavery crusade 
— were associated with madmen and disunionists, who 
were laboring to overthrow this Union, and establish 
anarch}' and confusion. Mr Wilson attacked that 
utterance as a great outrage on the part of Mr Beach. 
Now, the question is, are there any madmen and dis- 
unionists who are coiiperating with Mr Wilson and his 
republican party ? I do not like to call names, but you 
have only to recall thcni to mind and read their rav- 
ings against the constitution and the supreme court 
to carry conviction. Mr Beach, I think, shoidd have 
gone a little further in his classification of Senator 
Wilson's associates, and when he said there weie 
madmen and disunionists associated with these men 
in getting control of Massachusetts, and attempting 
to destroy this Union, he should have said, " mad- 
men, disunionists, and infi<lds.'' That is the class of 
men with whom these political managers are associ- 
ated. Who are the men \iho govern Gov. Banks, Sen- 
ator Wilson and these republican rulers? Are they 
infidels or not? What men are they to assume to 
rule the rulers of the land and teach the rising gen- 
eration in Massachusetts their duty to God and their 
country ? Let me give you a very"^few of their senti- 
ments : — 

" I do not believe in the miraculous character of 
Jesus. 1 take not the Bible for my master, nor the 
church for my master, nor yet Jesus of Nazareth for 
my master." That is Tlieodure Parker, the head of 
the inteU,ectual character of the republican movement. 
Again, said Mr Parker, 



" What rre icant is to emancipate ourselves from the 
Bible and the church." — '' We mmt shatter this religious 
belief in the old miracles. — We must set men hose from 
^ the old theological den ! ' ' 

^ Then, again, there is Mr Burlingame — their pet 

> fighting man, who is now a candidate to again mis- 

'i represent Boston in the congress of the United States, 

f — you hear him profanely declaring it as the dogma 

of his party that thej' must have a new Bible, a new 

Mionstitution and a new God! (Derisive laughter). 

^es, he saj-s, for I will quote his own words, " We 

^►..lust have an anti-slavery Bible, an anti-slavery Con- 

stii'ition, and an anti-slavery God." Was there ever 

prof&nity equal to that uttered by any red republican 

in France? If there has been, I never have heard 

of it. 

" The religion of the United States," says Mr Garri- 
sons, " is an IMPOSTUEE." Here is another of Mr 
Wilson's most talented and I believe most smcere as- 
sociates. 

" The Christian Scriptures have been a curse rather 
than a blessing to mankind," says the Infidel conven- 
tion of 1856, here in Massachusetts. 

In the Boston Liberator is this sentiment — (I pray 
you, my friends, to pardon me for reading this; it is 
so utterly profane that I shall be disgusted with the 
sound of my own voice in uttering it; but I want 
fathers and mothers to see where these men are lead- 
ing the youth of our land ; I want j'oung men, who 
have been taught some religious belief at their moth- 
er's knees, I want you to see where these men would 
lead you, before you join them.) In the Liberator for 
Feb. 2, 1855, is this language — 

" If God had the power to abolish slavery, and 
would not, he was a very great scoundrel." (Sensa- 
tion). 

That is the reverence of these men for Deity ! " A 
revival of religion," says an anti-siavery convention, 
" is onlj^ a device of time-serving hirelings to with- 
draw attention from the anti-slavery movement." 

Gentlemen, I will not detain you any longer with 
these extracts. Volumes might be read showing the 
profane sentiments of abolition leaders. The abo- 
lition party is the party of infidelity, and under it, in- 
fidelity is rearing its head in this commonwealth to. 
an alarming height. Talk of your Roman Catholics, 
and your apprehensions of the Pope and a foreign 
power ! Wherever they go, there go the Bible and 
the cross, and wherever we can see the Bible and the 
cross, we know Christianitj' is safe. These men who 
___ clamor for freedom come not with the Bible and the 
cross, but like the serpent in Paradise, insinuating 
and advising men that there is no all-seeing God, that 
the Scriptures are but the device of cunning men, and 
that Christ has no power to save the human race, and 
that there is no hereafter. That is the teaching of 
these abolitionists and disunionists ; and now I tell 
you that they control this republican party just as, in 
old times, the " crj'ers-out " against witchcraft, in 
Charlestown, Salem and elsewhere controlled the 
goveraaieut of that day. Then the afflicted " cryers 
out " held in their power the governor and the court. 
The governor did not dare to pardon a person con- 
victed of witchcraft, juries did not dare to refuse to 
convict. There was the case of poor old Rebecca 
Nurse, who was tried three times, and three times 
acquitted, but on a fourth trial, under that old tj'rant 
of fanaticism. Chief Justice Stoughton, she was con- 
victed and sentenced to death. Gov. Phipps was a 
mild and merciful man and he undertook to pardon 
her, but those " cryers out," who ruled the govern- 
ment of the state in those days, jnst as the anti-slavery 
element rules it now, cried out against him, and he 
was obliged to withdraw Ms pardon, and the poor old 
woman was hung. That was the influence of those 
people with whom Gov. Phipps and his council asso- 
ciated at that time. See how it is now. Did not 
Gov. Banks, like that eel to which I have alluded, 



wriggle in all ways to avoid turning out Judge Loring, 
and did not these very men, these Parkerites and 
Garrisonites, who went up before the legislative com- 
mittee and demanded the excution of Judge Loring, 
did they not compel him to remove that judge, for no 
other reason than because of these "cryers-out" of 
anti-slavery who threatened to unseat the governor 
if he did not obey them? 

Still Senator Wilson insists that his party are the 
friends of the Union and of the rights of the south. 
That gentleman stood up here and said his party was 
not a sectional party, but a party of the whole Union, 
and if the men of the South would like to come in 
and join in his republican conventions, says he, why 
don't you come? Very much as the porcupine said, 
when, one rainy day, he went into the burrow of the 
rabbit, and asked permission of the rabbit to stay there 
a little while. The rabbit consented, and the porcu- 
pine introduced his whole family there. By and by 
the rabbit said to him, " won't you please to go out, 
and leave me my home ?" " Oh, no," said the porcu- 
pine, " I am very comfortable ; if you don't like it, you 
may go;" and he commenced shooting out his quills 
and of course the rabbit had to leave. So it is with 
Mr Wilson. While he is working to get the presi- 
dency and the control of congress for his part}', he 
says, " Oh, we don't mean to trouble the south : we are 
willing to give them all their rights; whj' don't they 
come and help us make an abolition President!" And 
just as soon as they should get the power, they would 
compel the south to go out of the Union or stay in it 
dishonored. And let me tell you, gentlemen, that 
there is, in the Constitution of the U^nited States, one 
fearful clause, and if God ever leaves us to such judi- 
cial blindness that the combined people of the north 
shall put the power of this country into the hands of 
this class of men, you will see it come about; and that 
is in the tenth section of the first article of the Con- 
stitution of the United States. All the prohibitions 
against the exercise of powers on the part of the states 
are, first, those which are absolute, against the mak- 
ing of treaties, emitting bills of credit, coining of 
money, &c., and then there is a class of powers which 
the states mayexercise under certain circumstances. 
If you read that section you will see that it is pro- 
vided that " no state shall iny any duty of tonnage, 
keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into 
any agreement or compact with another state or with 
a foreign power, tdthout the consent of congress." 
With the consent of congress, they can do it. Hence 
you see that the moment northern abolition states 
should combine together and get the control of 
congress, they can declare war ; they can raise ships 
and troops to make war upon the south; they 
can conbine all the northern states together in one 
compact against the south ; and that is what some of 
these men are deep enough and dark enough to look 
forward to as the ultimate result of the disunion at 
which they aim. It is no longer a question merely 
whether the south will go out of ihe Union, as the 
cons3quencd of the success of a northern sectional 
part^but it is this power of conspiracy found in the * 
conMRution by means' of which abolitionism could 
divide the republic and take the lion's share. 

Let statesmen, let patriotic men look at this gulf 
which northern abolitionism if successful may open to 
the coimtry. If they ever should get a majority of 
abolition states they will drive the south to the M'all, 
and force them to emancipate their slaves, or go out 
of the Union ; — and we know the south too well not 
to know which course they will pursue. We do not 
know them as slaveholders, but as brother democrats 
and fellow citizens. As such we have stood with 
them, and our fathers before us, and out of the fifteen 
presidential elections, twelve have been carried by the 
democratic party, by a union of the north and of the 
south ; and it is only because these republican leaders 
want to break down the democracy first and then the 



8 



Union that they cry out against the " slave power,'' 
and disturb the peace of the countiy by raising their 
bugaboo at the north of this " ?iey?'0j;02i;eA" (Ap- 
plause.) 

Now, then, Mr Senator Wilson afBrms that this 
northern anti-slavery party is not a sectional party, 
but is really a nationarparty with all manner of re- 
gard and respect for the rights of the south. I doubt 
this, but as I do not know so much about Mr Wilson 
and his partj^ as some men who are in it, I will give 
better authority than my own on this head. I think 
it any man understands the republican party and 
understands Mr Wilson it is Mr Wendell Phillips. 
He is a ver3' eloquent man, a very able man, and I 
liave a respect for him, in spite ot his abolition and 
disunion notions, for I believe him to be sincere and 
disinterested. I think him most grievously mistaken; 
but he is one of those stern fanatics, of the old Puritan 
style of character, who really believed they were 
serving God when thev bound a heretic to the stake, 
covered him with pitcii and burnt him alive. He has 
that same stern Puritanic spirit, and therefore he is in 
earnest in what he undertakes. 

Now to show you what IMr Wendell Phillips thinks 
of the republican party, and of Mr Henry Wilson's 
opinion, I will read you a paragraph. Mr Pliillips 
savs — 

" It is the first sectional party ever organized in 
this country. It does not know its own face and it 
calls itself national; but it is not national, it is 
sectional. It is the north arraj'ed against the south. 
Henry Wilson said to me, ' We must get every north- 
ern state in order to elect Fremont.' Even in imagina- 
tion he did not count upon a single southern state 
It was a distinct recognition of the fiict that the re- 
publican party is a party of the north pledged against 
the south. Theodore Parker wanted to know onto 
where disunion would begin. I will tell liim: Jusl 
where that party' divides. That is a northern partj- 
against the southern. I do not call it an anti-slaverv 
party ; it has not risen to that yet. It is a northern 
party against a southern. They' made the first little 
breach. The first crack in the iceberg is visible; you 
■will hear it go with a crack through to the centre. 
Its first distinct recognition was Banks's election. 
He was elected by northern men — not a man from 
the south voting for him. That is the value of that 
party. I hail it as a sign — as a great gain. I did 
not hope to see it for ten years ; it has come unex- 
pectediy early.' " 

Mr AVendell Phillips looks deeper into these things 
than forty Mr Wilsons, and he sees just where they are 
going; and these men who hold offices in Massachu- 
setts are mere puppets in the hands of the grand con- 
spirators, who stand behind them, and shove them on 
to the brink of this precipice of dissolution, down 
which they will by and by tumble, unless we hold 
them back, and save them even from themselves ; and 
that we will do, for the American people will never 
let them rush into this abyss of disunion. 

Gentlemen, there is now no real issue touching this 
^avery agitation which is not substantially settled, 
• with a basis upon which all naen who love theAj^on 
may stand together. The democratic partyTro^its 
nationality, reposes upon this doctrine, embodied in 
the Cincinnati platform. As it regards the old states, 
we say', "Hands ofl'! you have no right to touch 
them." As regards the new states, we say, "Hands 
off ! A new state coming into the Union has all the 
power of an old state, and may exercise any power 
not inconsistent with the constitution." As regards 
the territories, we say, " Hands oft" ! The territories 
have the right, under their organic law, to pass any 
act not inconsistent with the constitution. If it is 
constitutional lor them to pass a law declaring that 
slavery shall not exist in the territory, the supreme 
court of the United States will say so, and that will 



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007 959 946 3 



1 say so, and that 

and that is the 
)f this common- ,. 

II ^ '^'"S ^° abide by > 
"^V ! a great people"^' . 
^F ion of this coun- c 
leave the exposition ot \ 
tliat constitution to the tribunal established by them < 
to interpret its meaning and decree its authority, the J 
supreme court of the United States? Why, we ^ 
leaving all our property and personal rights to 
decision of tli* supreme court of Massachusetts— 
conceivably higher and more valuable personal rj^hts 
than those in uie keeping of the supreme court /^f the 
United States. What is it to us whether the siipreme 
court says a man is a slave in Kansas on one side of 
the river, or in Missouri on the other side of the 
river ? Why be led into an agitation on such a little 
question as that which side of a line negro slaves 
shall live, who must continue to be slaves wherever 
they live. 

Talk about the " slave power!" Why, they are 
boasting every jl.ty that the slave power is receding at 
the southj while they are raising up this bugbear of 
"negro power" to control the whole north and conquer 
the south. "iVhat gives the republicau party any 
political power but this " negro power" — this " senti- 
ment of Massachusetts," as they call it— this senti- 
ment o;' the north end, which Mr Burlingame says he 
comes and lays his head on, and gets revived, whenever 
he faints? (Loud laughter and applause.) "The 
sentiment of Massachusetts !" Gentlemen, the senti- 
ment of Massachusetts used to be an honorable and 
national sentiment in support of the constitution. 
The whig party never went for the destruction of the 
constitution, or of the supreme court, or any court, 
and I rejoice to find here, as in other states, the con- 
.'^ervative men of that party uniting cordially and 
[ heartily with us in support of this Union and of the 
[ soimd principles of the constitution. And where else 
can they go if they do not mean to go out of the 
! Union ? 

1 Mr President and friends, I will not detain j'ou 
longer, kindly as you have listened to me. I have 
only to say in conclusion that I have entire confidence 
in the success and truimph of the national democratic 
party in this Union. It has never failed. The 
flag has been lowered but two or three times in the 
experience of half a century, but only lowered to rise 
again. Now if wc have the democratic principle upon 
our side, you may be sure that principle will win,that^ 
it will sustain and carry us thi-ough; just as did that 
principle which carried our fathers through the revo- 
lutionary war, when the first word was given, here in 
your region, to the men of the revolution to prepare 
for that great contest, and that word was, " Occupy 
the heights of Charlestown!" They did "occupy the 
heights of Charlestown." The first battle there was 
called by the British a defeat ; there was a retreat, 
but it was in efiect a victory. We have some such 
news of defeat and retreat coming to us now; but it 
will be followed by victory. On one occasion the 
marshal reported to Bonaparte that the battle was 
lost. "Very well," said he,* " it is lost just in time for 
us to gain the main battle." Just so it will be, in 
this defeat, growing out of the disaffection in Pennsyl- 
1 vania and the west. We may lose the battle there,- 
we may lose the next house, but we lose it just in time 
to gain the main battle in 1860. (Applause.) De- 
pend upon i), we shall then carry the flag of democra- 
cy triumphant at the head of the column and plant it 
again upon the presidential mansion, with a true mar 
to guard it and carry it onward till he hands it to his 
successor to march onward with the democratic partj* 
in the victories of the people that lie in the areat 
future of our beloved country. ^Mr Hallett took his 
seat amid enthusiastic cheers.) 



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